Thursday, October 25, 2012

Welcome to the Feature & Follow

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs!

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you!

What sets this Hop apart from others, is our Feature. Each week we will showcase a Featured Blogger, from all different genres and areas. Who is our Feature today? Find out below. Just remember it is required, if you participate, to follow our Features and you must follow the hosts (Parajunkee & Alison Can Read) as a courtesy. How do you follow someone? Well, if you have a preference, state it in your #FF post. A lot of blogs are transitioning to Wordpress in which they do not have the luxury of GFC, so an RSS subscription is appreciated or if you choose an email subscription. If you don't have GFC please state in your post how you would like to be followed.

How To Become a Featured Blog?

We pick our featured blogs randomly each week from the blogs who participated the week before.

Please be sure to feature your e-mail address clearly on your blog. Either on the main blog, on a Contact page, or on an About Me page. If I can't find your email easily, I will choose a different blog to feature.

Well this little baby has only been in operation Since August, I decided since I was going to be a professional author ;) that I needed a website. The poor thing gets neglected a lot due to all the time it takes to run my review site Book Me!

2. What is your favorite part of book blogging?

Well, on my other site it's partaking in memes and visiting the lovely followers I've made. I've formed some very close friendships with some terrific girls and I'm so thankful to have them in my cyber-life. Carmen Jenner.com is so new but I'm hoping to be able to really use this site as a writing tool. Eventually I'd like to be build a fanbase, post snippets of stories I'm working on, as well as some flash fiction and not just use it as a place where I say, "Oh look, I write books, you can buy them here."

3. What is your favorite book(s)?

There are way too many! I'm a sucker for an Armentrout book, I'll read and love anything by her. But I think my favourite would be Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. That book almost killed me! It was absolutely devastating and so courageous of Tabitha to tackle such a taboo subject, especially in YA. I remember reading the synopsis and thinking, "What would possess anyone to write that, and I wonder whether she pulls it off?" I had to read it immediately, and I'm so glad I did. It's weird how one little fiction book can teach you so much.

4. What has been the best thing that has happened to you because of book blogging?

Being published, without a doubt. I started blogging on Book Me! just to have somewhere to vent after I'd read a book, none of my friends are particularly Bookish people, and since I spent so much time reading and writing, I really felt like I was missing out on some sort of vital connection. I never really grasped just how big the book blogging community was until I started doing the Feature Follow. I'd been working for years at my writing, but it's the writing to an audience that's really helped me hone my voice and have the courage to seek publication.

Q: What writing device or trick most irritates you when reading a book? For example, if an author employs an omnipotent narrator that is sometimes considered bad form.

A few things...Let's see...I don't mind an omnipotent narrator in theory, but I do dislike when narrator goes from limited third person to omnipotent for no reason at all. This happens a few times in the first Harry Potter book. It's one of several major beginner mistakes in Sorcerer's Stone.

I usually dislike dialect. I don't deny that it is a useful tool, but it almost always annoys the hell out of me. Not so much a writing trick per se, but I hate when YA writers use the mean popular-girl queen bee stereotype. It's overdone.

The only genres I don't like much are mysteries and sci fi. It's rare that I will read or like a book in those genres, although it happens. I suppose the closest I come to stepping out of my genre is reading adult fiction, since I mostly read young adult fiction. But I've always read adult fiction so it's not exactly stepping out. How's that for a rambly answer?

Now for the Follow Fun!

With GFC going the way of the dodo bird for many bloggers, there is no better time to start following blogs via RSS feed. If you use a reader, it would be great if you followed my RSS directly.

We have a new button, so update your blogs if you are used to doing this meme!

Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.

Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say "hi" in your comments and that they are now following you.

If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn't have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed

Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "HI"

If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers

If you're new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

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If you have CAPTCHA word verification enabled on your blog, please take it off. It makes it much more difficult for readers to comment. Please look at my CAPTCHA Eradication Post to learn how to get rid of it.

Thank you so much for the feature!!! I truly feel spoiled! =DThis was such a tough question, great answer, though I do love dialect! I can't help it, I love accents and seeing a foreign language written without any explanation of what the words mean! It's the mystery that gets me! ;)Happy Friday, Lovely!

I agree about sterotypes. It is always refreshing to find a book that doesn't use these. I do find that YA books tend to wear me down with the he-said, she-said drama. lol I lean more toward adult PNR or UF. Happy Friday!

I agree with you too, but there are queen bee's still out there at all the school's, so it is probably easy for YA readers who are still at school to connect to them. They probably experience that everyday.

Oh, that's a smart answer! I love Harry Potter, but when I read your answer, I think I'm gonna have to reread it to look at it that way. Honestly, my opinion won't change, but I'd love to look at it with a new perspective! :)

I can't believe I forgot to include dialects in my answer!! It drives me nuts. I'd rather have an author describe the accent to me once and I'll do it in my head automatically. I hate being forced because it slows down my reading. Great answer!

I don't usually dislike dialects, but they do usually trip me up for a while until I get used to them. Like in Scarlet by AC Gaughen. I LOVED that book and I thought Scarlet's dialect definitely added to the authenticity of her story, but it took me several chapters before I could settle into her using "were" instead of "was". Have a great weekend Alison!

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I actually didn't notice that in The Sorcerer's Stone back in the day. The plot is so rich with substance that I guess I didn;t pay attention to the writing. Rowling definitely matured with the progressive books. (No comments on Casual Vacancy though)I don't enjoy dialects either. It can jarring. And stereotypes.. any new kind of character that comes out & is liked by readers suddenly finds itself being oft-used everywhere and.. turns into a stereotype. In these days its that of the kick-ass female lead. Almost every YA novel has one of her.

Also can I just add that this was one of the best F&F question till date! Who thought of it? It was like a mini-survey thing. The YA writers would do well to blog hop! Lol.